Re: [Simh] 101 Basic Games for RSTS/E (was Re: PDP11 on Simh for public access)

2019-01-20 Thread Tony Nicholson
On Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 10:46 AM Will Senn  wrote:

> Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I’m curious as to the provenance of
> the tape. Where’d you find it and do you know when it’s from?
>

The original (corrupted) Dectape image is at

http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/dectape/rsts/SeattlePacificCollege/158_ahl_basic_games.dta.gz

Since RSTS (and RSTS/E) natively access files from DECtape in DOS-11 format
only - I found the home block was offset in the image file (If I recall it
was not on a block boundary).  A snip of these superfluous bytes made it
readable.  The location of the original file suggests it came from Seattle
Pacific College.  Someone at bitsavers (Al Kossow) may know more about the
DECtape's provenance.

Tony

On Jan 23, 2018, at 6:00 PM, Tony Nicholson 
wrote:

On Tue, Jan 23, 2018 at 11:37 PM, Bryan Davies 
> wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> I just need to get it all in a nice neat box, connect up he VT100, and
>> download some games and things for the guests to use.
>>
>>
> Bryan (and all).
>
> I first encountered RSTS/E in 1975 on a PDP-11/45 when I was a student
> when I discovered a book "101 Basic Computer Games" with an accompanying
> DECtape.
>
> Recently I tracked down a copy of the book in PDF format and an image of
> the DECtape (that had to be fixed-up so that it was readable) on bitsavers .
>
> The book is at -
>
> http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/_Books/101_BASIC_Computer_Games_Mar75.pdf
>
> I now have this running on RSTS/E V10.1 and RSTS V06C-03 under SIMH -
> after some minor edits to fix changes to the Basic-Plus source file syntax
> (spaces between keywords etc).
>
> I've zipped-up the fixed DECtape image (DOS format) and an RL01 RSTS level
> 1.2 format disk image (label=GAMES) that you can copy the games from either
> and run them!
>
> The RL01 disk image is easiest (since DECtape support requires some
> fiddling and correct pdp11 unibus 18-bit model selection).
>
> In your SIMH .ini file (assuming you have sysgen'ed some RL type disks)
> you can -
>set rl enable
>set rl0 rl01
>att rl0 rl01-games.dsk
>
> Then once RSTS/E is up as a privileged user just "MOUNT DL0: GAMES" and
> look in DL0:[100,100]
>
> The zip file is
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IgZkafQABxWUXeuEkeq1GjkBe3sF2Zgx/view?usp=sharing
>
> Tony
>
>
>
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>
>

-- 
Tony Nicholson 
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Re: [Simh] 101 Basic Games for RSTS/E (was Re: PDP11 on Simh for public access)

2019-01-20 Thread Will Senn
Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I’m curious as to the provenance of the 
tape. Where’d you find it and do you know when it’s from? The reason I’m asking 
is that I just spent a day typing in and debugging/working to comprehend the 
program SPACWR.BAS from the not so great scanned pages of 101 BASIC Computer 
Games off of bitsaver. As I was running the result on my SIMH PDP 11 running 
RSTS/E V06C-03, I made another run at finding the original source and came 
across this thread. I downloaded the RL01 and mounted in my RSTS 9.6 
environment which was sysgen’d with RL support, loaded up the code and printed 
it out for a comparison. I was shocked how close my read of the scans were to 
the version here. Part of my surprise was naturally related to the restoration 
process, but the other came from the fact that the code from this tape doesn’t 
mention David Ahl, Mary Cole or Ida Potel, whereas they are credited in the 
source code in 101 games for minor work and debugging. As far as I can tell, 
other than whitespace, the only differences between my restored version from 
the 101 games scan and this version, is the additional attribution- which makes 
me wonder if Ahl, et. al., made ANY meaningful contribution worthy of 
attribution to the program.

So, when was the tape created, before 101 games or after and who, exactly 
should have credit for the version therein?

Later,

Will

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 23, 2018, at 6:00 PM, Tony Nicholson  
> wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Jan 23, 2018 at 11:37 PM, Bryan Davies  
> wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
>> I just need to get it all in a nice neat box, connect up he VT100, and 
>> download some games and things for the guests to use.
>> 
> 
> Bryan (and all).
> 
> I first encountered RSTS/E in 1975 on a PDP-11/45 when I was a student when I 
> discovered a book "101 Basic Computer Games" with an accompanying DECtape.
> 
> Recently I tracked down a copy of the book in PDF format and an image of the 
> DECtape (that had to be fixed-up so that it was readable) on bitsavers .
> 
> The book is at -
> 
> http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/_Books/101_BASIC_Computer_Games_Mar75.pdf
> 
> I now have this running on RSTS/E V10.1 and RSTS V06C-03 under SIMH - after 
> some minor edits to fix changes to the Basic-Plus source file syntax (spaces 
> between keywords etc).
> 
> I've zipped-up the fixed DECtape image (DOS format) and an RL01 RSTS level 
> 1.2 format disk image (label=GAMES) that you can copy the games from either 
> and run them!
> 
> The RL01 disk image is easiest (since DECtape support requires some fiddling 
> and correct pdp11 unibus 18-bit model selection).
> 
> In your SIMH .ini file (assuming you have sysgen'ed some RL type disks) you 
> can -
>set rl enable
>set rl0 rl01
>att rl0 rl01-games.dsk
> 
> Then once RSTS/E is up as a privileged user just "MOUNT DL0: GAMES" and look 
> in DL0:[100,100]
> 
> The zip file is 
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IgZkafQABxWUXeuEkeq1GjkBe3sF2Zgx/view?usp=sharing
> 
> Tony
> 
> 
> 
> ___
> Simh mailing list
> Simh@trailing-edge.com
> http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
___
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